The Unexpected Twist - Marline (best books to read for young adults .txt) 📗

his arms around me and let me cry on his shoulder. “And trust me, the reasons I have are far different from anything you imagine.” I didn’t know why, but I believed him. Furthermore, I desperately needed to tell somebody about Cam and since Liam knew part of the story already anyways, it wouldn’t hurt telling him the rest of it.
“Come on, let’s sit down.” Liam led me towards a dead tree trunk and I gratefully sat down. I wasn’t sure if my legs could hold me much longer anyways. Liam wisely did not touch me again.
“Tell me the story.” He gently urged me when he had sat down next to me.
The story spilled out like a waterfall. I knew that at times I was incoherent but I was so relieved that I could finally share this burden with somebody else.
“And I’m not sure yet if she’s pregnant but she says her period is late and she’s really worried and she doesn’t know what to do if she does turn out to be pregnant.” I concluded.
Liam thought for a few moments and then I saw a change in him. I saw a look in his eyes that scared me and his fingers formed into a fist.
“Stan will pay for this.” He said between clenched teeth.


Chapter 3

“Claire.” He said softly. “Remember when I told you that everything I do has a reason?” I did not answer him, refusing to acknowledge his presence. “When I explain the reason for some of my choices, you will understand them.” Rage, adrenaline and worry were flowing freely through me. “Understand?” I fumed. “I will never understand you.” My body was preparing itself for a fight or flee situation. The worst part was that I knew that I didn’t have allies. Liam was no longer on my side; instead, he was siding with Stan. The moment I had realized this was the moment my whole world had fallen apart but I had gotten over the initial shock and was now contemplating a strategy.
Suddenly, without warning, Stan came into the room with two other guys who I did not know. “Come on, let’s get on with it, we don’t have all day.” His voice made me feel as if a cold hand was clamping around my neck, choking me slowly.
“My turn first.” It was Liam who spoke. My mind was frantically searching for an escape route, I looked for a weapon around me but there was nothing that could protect me from these four guys. I knew that I wouldn’t even have been able to handle one of them, let alone four. I felt Liam’s body press hard against mine and my first instinct was to knee him in the groin. Right before I used my only defense, he whispered something in my ear.
“Trust me.” I so desperately wanted to do just that, trust him, but my brain told me not to. He was dangerous. He was one of them.
Unexpectedly, I felt Liam’s lips on mine but his touch was not sincere. There was no sign of the gentleness with which he had kissed me before and his touch was rough. This was pure madness; I could feel his strength through his lips and knew that I was helpless. I felt his hands slide under my shirt and realized that he was really doing this, he was really about to rape me. I bit down on his lip as hard as I could and tasted blood, but he did not stop. Instead, he just continued kissing me and in one quick motion he pulled my shirt over my head. I wanted to scream but with his tongue down my throat it came out more like a moan. Without warning, Liam turned around and faced the other boys, who were watching in amusement.
“I can’t do this with you guys watching. I’ll call you when I’m done with her and then you can enjoy her all you like.”
“Oh yeah?” Stan immediately became aggressive. “So you can use her up and leave her as a used rag for the rest of us?”
Liam chuckled. “Her? Nah, she can go on all day. I’ve seen her. She’s like a tiger.”
Stan cursed and walked out the door. The other guys followed. “You have 10 minutes. Then it’s our turn.” He warned. “And if I find out that you took her all for yourself...” He did not finish the warning but I could imagine what he would do. But Liam did not answer; his lips were already entangled in mine again. The moment we heard the door close was the moment Liam let go of me. “We need to hurry!” He took me by the hand and I had just enough time to snatch my T-shirt off the ground before he pulled me out the other door. He didn’t even bother closing it, knowing that the guys would know how we had escaped anyways. We ran through the forest, as quickly as we could. We both knew that we did not have enough time to run very far and that we needed to find a hiding place soon. Because I was running so fast, I did not see the root lying on the path in front of me and inevitably, I tripped. Liam was not gentle with me as he pulled me up and continued running. With every step I took I felt pain shoot up my ankle and into my leg. I had twisted it, maybe even sprained it but I did not have time to worry about it. We had to keep running.
Liam noticed some large bushes, tangled into a mess of branches and leaves and decided that this was a reasonable place for us to hide for the moment. He dove in and pulled me after him. With his bare arms he pushed away thorny branches so that we could crawl in even further and hide. Neither of us said anything as we listened for any noises but I was sure that if anyone came to look for us, they would be able to hear my heartbeat. After sitting in silence for around fifteen minutes, my breath and heartbeat had steadied but my heart immediately started pounding again when I heard running footsteps, heading our way. Through the leaves and the branches, I could see who it was: the three rapists. To my relief, it didn’t seem as if they were looking around, or searching for us. Instead I heard one of them pant:
“Hurry! They’ve probably warned the police by now!” The guys passed us and their footsteps disappeared. Liam and I sat in complete silence for another ten minutes before the tension became too much for me. I started crying, the pain in my foot which I had managed to suppress for some time now became almost unbearable and as I just realized what had happened, tears flowed freely. In the meantime, I attempted at pulling on my shirt but it did not work, it got stuck in branches and I couldn’t possibly lift my arms up to pull it over my head and so instead I just clamped it against my body, embarrassed by the fact that I had been running through the forest half naked.
“Claire, I’m really sorry.” Liam whispered, referring to the fact that he had forcefully kissed and stripped me. I managed to smile through my tears.
“You saved my life. I’m the one that’s supposed to be sorry. I didn’t trust you.”
He laughed. “That’s only natural. I was about to rape you, how could I expect you to trust me?” I leaned against his shoulder, not bothered to think of any of the complications which surrounded us.

The sun had set some time ago and darkness was threatening to surround us. It was the time of day when there was just enough light to see where you were going but not enough to notice the details in your surroundings.
“Come on,” Liam crawled out of our improvised shelter, “we can’t stay here all night.” He held out his hand to help me and I slowly crawled out from beneath the bushes. The first thing I did was put my shirt on and he dutifully looked away from me though I could see that he was trying to smother a smile. I couldn’t help but smile a little also as I realized that it was perhaps a little unnecessary for him to turn around now; he had seen everything already anyways.
He helped me get up but when I tried putting pressure on my foot, it hurt even more than before. I held my mouth shut though, because I did not want him to know how much pain I was in. He put my arm around his shoulder and carried most of my weight as I limped forwards. Every step I took the pain became a little more bearable, perhaps I got used to it the more I walked on it. We walked for about five minutes, carefully avoiding roots and other obstacles on the path and also seeing that it was getting darker every minute. Suddenly Liam increased his pace a little bit.
“There’s a lake over there, I think it will be a good place to spend the night.” I was too tired and in too much agony to show much enthusiasm but I liked the idea that I could finally sit down. We came to the lake and Liam gently helped me sit down next to a tree.
“I’ll go search for a bowl to get some drinking water.” He said. But just before he left I grabbed his arm. “Please, don’t leave me here.” I begged.
He smiled. “I won’t.” Instead of looking for a bowl he walked over to the lake and tasted the water. After he had determined that the water was drinkable, he scooped some up using both his hands and brought it over to me. I drank the water out of his hands and couldn’t remember a time when water had ever tasted this good. He then sat next to me and wrapped his arms around me. I sighed contentedly and leaned against his shoulder but I could not go to sleep yet. I sill had one burning question that I desperately needed to ask him.
“Liam,” I looked up at him and he looked down at me.
“Yes?” He smiled.
“You said that if you told me the reasons for your actions that I would understand them. Will you tell me these reasons?”
He glanced off into the distance and took a deep breath. “I temporarily sided with Stan so that I could get more information about what he was up to. I also needed proof, which, I have right here.” He grinned as he pulled a tape out of his pocket. “All the proof you need.” Then he grew serious again. “I never meant for you to get involved but seeing that you are so incredibly nosy…” He grinned as he looked down at me again and I could not resist poking him in the side, “…you got involved.” He continued.
“And the reason why I’ve been such a jerk to you ever since you moved here was because I couldn’t stand the thought that a girl had finally managed to steal my heart.” I looked at him incredulously. Was he serious? Had he never fallen in love with a girl before? And was he in love with me?
To hide my forthcoming embarrassment I decided to take the easiest route, to tease him.
“Well, if that is your way of showing affection towards a girl then you have a lot to learn.” He grinned and leaned down